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60 DIDYNAMIA. ANGIOSPERMIA. 
449. *EPIFAGUS.} Oropancne. L. (Beechi- 
— drops. Cancer-root.) ’ 
Polygamons,—Calia abbreviated, 5-toothed. 
Corolla of the infertile flower ringent, compress- 
ed, 4-cleft, lower lip flat: fertile flower minute, | 
4-tovthed, deciduous. Capsule truncate, oblique, | 
1-celled, imperfectly 2-valved, opening only on 
one side. 
A somewhat carnose herbaceous plant, destitute of ver- 
dure as in the preceding genus, and parasitic only upon 
the roots of the Beech; stem virgately branched, branches 
simple, every where distantly floriferous; scales small and _ 
remote, commencing from the extremity of the root, sub- 
tending both radical fibres and flowers, upper parts of the 
branches producing perfect flowers but abortive fruit, 
lower imperfectly formed flowers fructiferous! capsule 
coriaceous, roundish and small, with the character of .e- 
lampyrum, but truncated, at length extending by moisture 
in the jorm of a cup. = * 
‘Specres. E. "americanus. (Orobanche virginiana: L-) 
Equally indigenous to every part of North America. . 
Oxs. Root tuberous and carnose, squamiferous, radi¢les — 
axillary, fragile, short and divaricately branched. Stem 
and the whole plant, nearly smooth, branched from thé 
base, 12 to 18 inches high, branches about 6 to 9, long and 
furnished with small ovate scales, shorter than the subpe- 
dunculated calix. Flowers distant and alternate, desti- 
‘tute of proper bractes, subtended by the cauline scales. 
~ Calix short and cup-shaped, only about half the length of 
_ the capsule, border angularly cremate, crenatures 5, acute. 
Fruiting corolla very small, 4-toothed, rarely expanding, 
_ elevated and rendered deciduous by the obliquity and ra- 
pid enlargement of the germ; later flowers produced to- 
wards the summits of the branches, conspicuous, more 
“than half an inch long, tubular, compressed, and bilab.ate, 
upper lip subemarginate; the lower 3-toothed, flat, and 
acute, without any intermediate plaits or palate, colour 
white, with dark but bright purple stripes. Stamina 4, 
ew 3 
oS 
common and appropriate name of ” 
almost universally known; 
